Metal News

Happy Halloween!!!!

I awoke to a nice foggy Halloween morning, and it just seemed so appropriate, I had to share!

Here are some super spooky Jack-o-lanterns we carved over the weekend.

Okay, okay, enough about Halloween and all that fun, I have metal news to share with you all! The Man was kind enough to allow me in his space while he worked and was gracious enough to give me all the answers to my silly questions.

For beginners this is his forge. It's made from an old propane bar-b-q, he ripped it down to bare bones, drilled holes on either side so he could insert the air flow pipe.

Here's a photo where you can actually see the pipe. My last blog about Metal Working I told you how he set up his air flow by using an old mattress pump and a light dimmer switch.

The photo above his how he lights his charcoal. I have to tell you; the propane and the flame so close, for so long, was only a little frightening.

He's considering closing off the other half of the forge as he just isn't using all of the space, I reminded him that a longer knife, or an ax would take up more space and I think he actually agreed with me. HAHA

Here we have a picture after the forge finally lit. I think it was a total of 5 minutes getting the charcoal to light, I don't know why, it seemed like it took forever!

This is what she looks like once she's up and running! Sparks and flame everywhere, hot metal being thrown all over the place and quite a bit of water being sprayed on the coals.

Which brings on the question, why the heck are you spraying water on it? The answer: You only want the center of the coals hot, if you can keep the outer coals cool, the center will stay the hottest point, thus creating a great temperature for heating metal. (Duh!) After I heard the answer, I was a bit disappointed in not coming up with that myself.

The anvil. It's' cute isn't it? After a full day of heating and beating metal The Man informs me that having his anvil on the ground is hurting his old bones, he has a massive chunk of tree sitting in the front yard, but the chainsaw is giving him issues. It's a lopsided hunk of tree and it's about 4 feet long, so it really needs to be cut down to size. After beating the metal until it starts to darken, I watched him stick it on the little round magnet you see at the end of the anvil. (Here comes another question) What's with the magnet? Turns out; once the metal becomes magnetic again, it is no longer hot enough to form and it has to go back in the fire. I feel like somewhere in the depths of my knowledge I knew that once metal reaches a certain temperature it is no longer magnetic, I just tossed that knowledge to the side, like the Pythagorean theorem from math in high school. hahaha

I'm not sure what type of "nail" this is and I don't enjoy being incorrect, but alas, here is a round piece of metal the man has happily flattened and begun to shape into a nice knife form.

Here are a few of his other tools, a grinder, a new sander (picked up from a yard sale for $20) and some other rad stuff that he's picked up along the ride.

I thought I would provide you all with a fun video. If you find yourself on my facebook page, I uploaded a time lapse video of The Man working on several knives at once.

Thanks for having a look!

Metal Working

This isn't my thing, but it is the man's thing, I want to share what he has accomplished and what I have learned by just being around it.

He built his forge using an old propane bar-b-q, he made the ash infused cement which, to my understanding, acts the same as heat brick. It is a coal forge and he rigged a blower from an old air mattress pump and a light dimmer switch so he can adjust the air flow appropriately. He is on the hunt for an old wine barrel or whiskey barrel so he can quench the metal after heating it. He has yet to forge a knife, however, he cut, shaped, sanded and sharpened a knife from an old chunk of metal he had. It was a painfully intricate process. Haha!

This weekend was the man's birthday and I was supposed to allow him time to tend to his forge, I failed. We spent the whole weekend doing other things. This was also supposed to be my time for glorious learning so I could give you all these wonderful photos and knowledge. (The photo provided is our kids, and family playing in his work space)

Once he has the quench barrel, he has several leaf springs that are, apparently, excellent forging metal. His next project is a knife made from an old lawn mower blade.

Do any of you awesome readers partake in metal working? Do you follow specific techniques, free hand or by the books? Is it a hobby or are you taking commission for pieces? It's a lost art I would say, but it is a very awesome thing to know, ya know for the zombie apocalypse.

Thanks for reading! See ya next time.